Interested in Ships and Stamps? The Ship Stamp Society is an international society and publishes it’s journal, Log Book, six time a year. Full membership includes receiving Log Book by post, but there is an online membership costing just £12pa.Full details can be found on our web site at http://www.shipstampsociety.com where you can also join and pay your chosen subscription through Paypal or by cheque.A free sample of Log Book is available on request.

Caballito de totora: Is a one man reed craft found on several mountain lakes. Constructed of 3 bundles of totora reeds, the central keel bundle bound tightly to form a lightly upturned point at the bow; the outer 2 bundles create the sides; truncated stern. Platform of reeds laid on the after half. Paddle has a very slender loom to which a spade shaped blade is attached.Length ca. 2.5m.

KD Kasturi is one of the two Kasturi-class corvettes of the Royal Malaysian Navy, Her hull number is (F-25) and name of her sister ship is KD Lekir (F-26). They were acquired in the mid-1980s. The two ships constitute the Malaysian Navy's 22nd Corvette Squadron, their homeport being Lumut. After about 25 years of service, they underwent an extensive modernisation known as Service Life Extension Program (SLEP) starting in 2009, enabling them to be employed for another 10 to 15 years. They have since been returned to active duty.

The two ships of the class are named after Hang Kasturi and Hang Lekir, two heroic figures from the Malay 15th-century epic narrative Hikayat Hang Tuah. They share this characteristic with the two Lekiu-class frigates KD Lekiu and KD Jebat, as well as the old frigate-turned-trainingship KD Hang Tuah, all of which are named after figures from the epic as well.

The class was ordered in February 1981, and built by the German Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft (HDW) shipyard. Both ships were simultaneously launched on 14 May 1983 and commissioned on 15 August 1984. Two more were planned, but were never ordered. The Kasturi class is based off HDW's FS 1500 design. The two ships constitute the Royal Malaysian Navy's 22nd Corvette Squadron. Their homeport is Lumut at the west coast of the Malayan Peninsula, facing the Strait of Malacca and the Indian Ocean.

In August 2009, a Service Life Extension Programme (SLEP) was awarded to Boustead Heavy Industries to overhaul the aging corvettes, with work to be carried out locally at the Boustead Naval Shipyard in Lumut. By this time, the KD Kasturi had reportedly not been operational since 2007, and it would eventually take almost seven years for her to resume operational status in early 2014. The KD Lekiu against that remained in active duty until the SLEP work on her began in October 2011 and was completed in November 2014. The SLEP is estimated to have extended the corvettes' service life by around 15 years.

Despite the work being incomplete on the KD Lekiu at that time, both ships participated in the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in March 2014.

The SLEP modernisation comprised extensive changes to the original configuration of the ships, aimed at both extending their service life as well as improving combat capabilities. The TACTICOS Combat Management System from Thales replaced the older Signaal SEWACO MA command system and the DR3000S Electronic Support Measures suite including the Therma SKWS Decoy Launching System was installed. The DA-08 search radar and the WM22 fire control radar were overhauled, and the Thales MIRADOR electro-optical sensor replaced the Signaal LIOD optronic director. A DSQS-24C hull-mounted sonar from Atlas Elektronik was installed to complement the new torpedo-launch capabilities.

The Kasturi class' original armament was heavily altered by the 2009 modernisation as well. The 57 mm Bofors was moved from the aft to the bow, where it replaced the 100 mm gun as the main gun. No new aft gun was installed. The two manually operated Emerlec 30 mm twin-barrel anti-air guns were replaced with 30 mm single-barrel MSI DS30B guns. Anti-submarine capabilities were enhanced by replacing the dated Bofors 375 mm anti-submarine rocket launcher with two EuroTorp B515 triple torpedo launchers equipped with Whitehead A244-S torpedoes. The launchers however were reportedly salvaged from the Laksamana-class corvettes, which thereby lost their anti-submarine capabilities.

There are conflicting reports about the Exocet anti-ship missiles. Some sources state that the Kasturi class prior to the SLEP had been equipped with the Exocet MM38, an old variant of the missile, and that the modernisation included an upgrade to the newer and more capable Exocet MM40 Block II variant. Other sources state that the ships had been equipped with MM40 Block II missiles straight from the beginning.

Balsa raft was already mentioned by early travellers, in use from southern Colombia to central Peru. She were all made of Ecuadorian balsa logs.Size, shape and rigging varied, indicating adaptations to meet special uses and geographical conditions. Modified by the colonial Spanish, who found them useful as river craft in lowland Ecuador, where they were sometimes 24m long and outfitted for comfortable travel. Some only a skeletal framework others solidly built surfaces of 2 layers of logs; 2 deck seagoing rafts also reported. Small balsas used mainly for ferrying and cargo transport, and some constructed as 1-way timber rafts that floated downstream. Many equipped with sails and 2 masted types were seen. The mast often the inverted “V” type. Then as now the sailing balsa used one or more daggerboards at each end to control direction under sail. On the smaller unrigged craft, a plank aft maneuverer in a sculling motion propels the craft. Recent balsas are recorded as having 5 -11 logs and up to 18m long, but most are shorter. Shaped bows on some; others squared off. On the sailing craft, the mast placed in a hardwood step and sets either a lug, sprit or gaff sail. A light spar may extend the lugsail. Large Ecuadorian balsas were in use until about 1920, often aiding in lightering from ships.

At the very beginning of 2015, Lithuania Post released the first pre-paid postcards of the current year. The postcard was released to commemorate one of the most important energy projects – the liquefied natural gas terminal (LNG) - launched during the period of independent Lithuania, and make Lithuania independent from the Russian energy supply to that country.The vessel depict is the INDEPENDENCE a Floating Storage & Regasification Unit (FSRU) which was built under yard No 2549 by Hyundai Heavy Industries, Ulsan, South Korea, for Leif Hoegh LNG Klaipeda Pte. Ltd, Oslo, Norway.2012 Keel laid down.Launched as the INDEPENDENCE, she was christened by Mrs. Dalia Grybauskaite, President of Lithuania.Tonnage 109,793 grt, 36,732 nrt, 82,028 dwt, dim. 294.07 x 50,0 x 46.0m., length bpp 282,02m, draught 12.6m.Powered: Dual-fuel Propulsion System (DFDE) (Diesel electric) by Wärtsilä-Hyundai engines, speed 18 knots.Cargo capacity in four LNG tanks, 170,132m³.12 May 2014 delivered to owners. Building cost ca. 330 million US$. Registered in Singapore. Managed by Hoegh LNG AS, Oslo.27 October 2014 arrived at Klaipeda, where she was moored as a LNG storage and regasification unit and LNG import terminal.2015 Same name and owner, IMO No 9629536.

Built as a stealth corvette by Kockums Kalrskrona yard for the Swedish Navy.27 June 2003 launched as the HSwMS HELSINGBORG (K32) one of the Visby class.Displacement 650 ton, dim. 72.8 x 10.4 x 2.4m. (draught)Powered: GODAG, 4 Honeywell TF50 A gas turbines, total power 16 MW and 2 MTU Friedrichshafen 16V 2000 N90 diesel engines, total power 2.6 MW, which are connected gearboxes which run 2 – KaMeWa waterjets. She is also fitted out with rudders and bow thrusters for harbour manoeuvring.Speed 40 knots.Armament 1 – 57 Mk3 gun, 8 – RBS15 Mk2 AShM anti-ship missile. Mines and depth-charges.Crew 43.Hull is made of a sandwich construction comprising a PVC core with a carbon fibre and vinyl laminate.Fitted out with a helicopter platform.24 April 2006 delivered.

After an extensive operational sea trials in which she returned to the yard several times, she left for her first voyage on 12 August 2006 for the Mediterranean, 11 September she returned back in Karlskrona, Sweden.19 December 2009 in active service as a unit of the 31st Corvette Squadron, 3rd Naval Warfare Flotilla.2015 In service.

A Beautiful Ship. The “Thomas Stephens”, a real clipper, was one of the finest models of an iron ship ever launched. When discussing this ship recently, "Sea Breeze," the writer of some articles appearing in the "Auckland Star" during December and January, 1923-4, and who had formerly been in company with the Thomas Stephens, remarked:—"When the builders put her off the stocks they established a model in iron ship building that has been followed in degree by builders the world over. In hull design her long sweeping sheer line was accentuated by the painter's art, and the grey bottom colour was carried high up the black.The top sides and gave the impression of extreme length, sitting on the water like a great canoe. In her spar and sail plan there was no fault, her main truck being over 200 feet above the deck. The area of her working canvas was enormous and this was supplemented by stunsails fore and aft. These supplementary sails were of prodigious spread, the lower stunsails projecting forty feet from the outer boom iron. Lying alongside of a ship I was in when in Rangoon in 1881 her spars dominated all shipping in spite of the fact that the American ship Sterling and other crack U.S. built ships were at anchor in the river."The “Thomas Stephens” was built to carry passengers to Australia and her appointments could not well be improved upon. Thomas Stephens and Sons of London were the owners of the ship and she was built in 1869 at Liverpool. Capt. Richards took command of her when she was launched and made many rapid passages from Liverpool to Melbourne. Ten years later he brought the ship to New Zealand. On this occasion she left London on April 27th, 1879, calling at Plymouth to take on board passengers. She made the run from Plymouth to the Snares in 72 days and reached Port Chalmers on the 75th day from Gravesend, dropping anchor on the 13th July, 1879. The “Thomas Stephens” had a great career. During the ten years she was running to Melbourne before coming to New Zealand she made several remarkable passages out and home. Capt. Richards on his arrival at Dunedin reported he had made three runs to Melbourne in 64, 65 and 66 day pilot to pilot. Other records from Liverpool to Melbourne were:—1871, 68 days; 1872, 72 days; 1873, 74 days; 1874, 73 days; 1878, 77 days—on one occasion when on her homeward run from Melbourne she covered the distance to Cape Horn in 16 days. The “Thomas Stephens” also made several very fast runs to Sydney after her visit to Dunedin, and on one occasion it is recorded she covered 1000 miles in 70 hours. The “Thomas Stephens” never met with any serious disaster until she was lost, but like all other ships when in the Southern Ocean, encountered on more than one occasion very severe gales. She experienced a terrific gale in 1893 when homeward bound from Melbourne. Her decks were completely swept by heavy seas and her bulwarks carried away. She put into Callao for repairs when it was found that her cargo of wheat had not suffered. The “Thomas Stephens” was eventually sold to the Portuguese and when shipping was scarce during the great war she was again fitted out and sailed for America. On her return passage she was posted as missing, probably sunk by a German submarine.The painting of Jack Spurling.Djibuti 2009;100f;SG?Source:http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Bre01Whit-t1-body-d241.html

Lake Malawi is approximately 575km long and up to 80km wide. It forms part of the Great Rift Valley with steep and precipitous slopes in places. It is the third largest lake in Africa and amongst the twelve largest lakes in the world. The deepest part of the lake, at the northern end, is 213 metres below sea level or 701 metres deep. The lake surface covers an area of nearly 23,000 square kilometres, which is approximately 20% of the total area of the Republic of Malawi.Ships have been operated on Lake Malawi by Malawi Railways since 1931 and vessels have been able to connect with the rail system at Chipoka since 1935. However, because of the exposed nature of the lake shore at Chipoka the headquarters of the Lake Service were developed at Monkey Bay, the nearest sheltered bay about 45 kilometres almost due east of Chipoka.Built in 1935, the first modern ship to operate commercially on Lake Malawi was the MV MPASA. At that time the facilities at Chipoka were very scant and there were no services at any of the ports of call. The complete redevelopment of Chipoka was completed in 1979 whilst proper harbour installations were first provided at Chilumba in the northern region in 1973.Improvements have also been made at Monkey Bay including in 1975 the provision of a slipway.

The MV MTENDERE entered service in October 1980, she was the first vessel to provide seating accommodation for all passengers. In her first full year of service she carried 70,000 passengers but two years later this had increased to nearly 100,000. The vessel operates a weekly schedule serving the major ports and many smaller ones; she also serves the islands of Likoma and Chizuniulu.

Built in sections as a ferry under yard No 1415 by Schlichting Werft, Travemünde, Germany for the Malawi Railways Ltd. The ship was paid by the German Government as aid to the Malawian Government.The sections arrived at Lake Malawi on 25 July 1980 were the sections again were fitted together.03 October 1980 completed as the MTENDERE.Tonnage 924 grt, dim. 50.7 x 9.7 x 2.4m. (draught)Two diesel engines each 498 hp, speed 11.5 knots.